Republicans officially set for at least 50 Senate seats after Alaska race is called for GOP's Dan Sullivan

Republicans will have at least 50 seats in the Senate next year after a re-election victory by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).

Sullivan was projected on Wednesday to win his re-election bid by NBC News and CNN. The victory by Sullivan over independent candidate Al Gross had been expected for days, but it took some additional time for races to be called in Alaska because the state didn't release absentee ballot results until Nov. 10, The Associated Press explains.

As a result of Sullivan's win, Republicans will have 50 seats in the Senate, while Democrats have 48, The Washington Post notes. Control of the Senate will therefore come down to Georgia, where two Senate races are headed for runoffs in January. Should Democrats win them both, that would give them 50 seats, and in that scenario, the Post explains, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would cast tie-breaking votes. Otherwise, Republicans will maintain control of the Senate.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In terms of how likely a Democratic win in both runoffs is, FiveThirtyEight writes that "until recently, it would have looked like a pipe dream," but with President-elect Joe Biden possibly on track to defeat President Trump there, the site notes Georgia "may be undergoing a transformation."